I'll most probably be there on Monday - already got my ticket

I suppose it could just be a battery charge issue.
Although not strictly relevant to the above post, just last night while shooting at a wedding reception, my DL announced "batteries depleted" and then shut down.
A few minutes later, I switched it back on without changing the batteries and it was absolutely fine - the display indicated full charge and I was able to complete the shoot.
I switched the camera back on today and the display showed approx. half charge.............so I don't know why it shut down last night, although I had been using the RTF and the display to review the images. Perhaps the output fluctuates during heavy use and the batteries just needed a 'rest' in order for the camera to read the correct power level!

Batts. - Uniross NiMH 2100mAh

Well the DL hardly needed replacing, it was only released last year!

To be fair though, it is good to see Pentax updating their products instead of resting on their laurels and falling behind the competition.
The DS2 and DL2 in particular are the most important models and need to be crammed with gimmicky picture modes etc. in order to appeal to the novices that crave as much 'bang for the buck' as possible.
I'm not at all bothered about the extra focusing points and picture modes but I can't blame Pentax for including them.

I don't see me being in the market for a new top of the range pro-spec model for quite some time but knowing Pentax, I'm sure it will be something quite special.

I've already got my ticket Matt, in the meantime, I'll try to make some sense of the technical stuff and if I do, I'll certainly pass the message on

Nice find Matt, I rather like that myself

Oops, sorry Drew

Yes, you're right of course. What I meant to say was that although the settings would be correct for any lens, you'd have to make allowances for the shift when using a variable aperture zoom - as per your suggestion.
Again, it's not really all that critical in most cases as the exposure latitude of general purpose film can easily cope with a half stop under exposure.
If you're shooting with a fixed shutter speed, than most aperture rings have 1/2 stops and you can easily compensate.

That sounds like a good tip Simon.

This sort of question crops up quite a lot and I think the confusion comes from the general rule that f8 @ 125th sec. has the same EV regardless of lens used. If my understanding is correct, this is true for prime lenses but not for variable aperture zooms and the photographer would have to bear this in mind where the choice of aperture and/or shutter speed is critical.

A basic hand-held meter provides a range of aperture/shutter speed combinations that will provide the 'correct' exposure for the available light.
The focal length or diameter of the lens is not taken into account and the figures provided will be correct for any prime lens or constant aperture zoom.

In the case of most zooms, it's actually not much of a problem because we're only talking about a fraction of a stop throughout the zooming range, with the full shift only occurring at the maximum focal length.
Obviously with such a massive zooming range as 28-300mm, there is inevitably a greater shift between maximum apertures - it's just one of those compromises that you have to accept if you want such a versatile lens!

Simon's technique will work and you might find addition information on the lens itself eg. my Tamron Adaptall2 75-250mm manual focus zoom has barrel markings to show focal lengths in white from 75 to 180mm and then 250mm which is in orange, this indicates that the max. aperture of f4.5 applies because the 4.5 is orange and all others are white (f32 to f3.8 ).
There are also various depth of field markings and ratios with both standard figures and those that apply when a 2x converter is used.
Tamron were particularly good at this sort of thing but I dare say that their later AF range are not so informative.

I've got a perfect SFX body, which despite holding it's value on the second-hand market (high street) for many years is now worth less than a bag dry-roasted peanuts, that I intend to put onto eBay.
A low cost AF zoom to go with it should make it attractive to somebody and I can hardly complain - I recently picked up a nice SFXn + F 50 1.7 for under £60 (needless to say it was the lens I was after )

Well done Liam, I had my eye on that 35-80 too!

You're welcome Philip.

Actually it was purely incidental, I'd been checking out a couple of lenses on the MTF charts and decided to read through a few of the articles. It struck me that some of the information might be of interest to you - it certainly was to me!